news

"We don't live in the '50s." A Year 9 student hits back at her school's 'slut shaming' warnings.

Female students at a Victorian secondary college have hit back after being reportedly warned against wearing short skirts and makeup, and taking “sexy selfies”.

“You can’t tell me what ‘ladylike’ is because we don’t live in the ’50s anymore,” Year Nine student Faith Sobotker said in a recorded message aimed at the teachers of Kambrya College.

“I am looking for equality.”

The warning from teachers had come in the wake of nationwide media coverage of a vile Australian website housing thousands of images of naked girls and women, many from schools across the country, earlier in the week.

Victorian school, Kambrya College. Source: Facebook / Kambrya College

According to The Age, Kambrya College staff discussed the matter with students in an assembly on Thursday and told the girls that by wearing longer skirts, less makeup and no longer taking nude selfies they would ultimately "protect their integrity".

"No matter how I present myself, I am confident and I am comfortable. My self respect is doing what makes me happy... I am looking to show off my body without being sexualised. I am 15 years old. You do not get to sexualise me like that," Sobotker explained as she looked in the camera.

Being met with cheers by classmates surrounding her, the student continued, "You do not get to tell me that my body is sacred, because it isn't. Half the population is female, all right? We're not sacred. We're not a new discovery. People know that I have legs, I have knees, I have thighs, OK? I'm sick of the sexism."

A screenshot from the photo website. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Interjecting at one point was a fellow student who chimed in, "She's saying what everyone thinks." Other classmates could be heard saying "preach it" in the background.

"I do not want these girls to be growing up in a society where they need to believe that their body needs to be a certain way. Because they can be however they want to be. They can be however makes them comfortable and confident. That's what I want to see," Sobotker continues.

Watch: A victim of the photo website speaks to Channel 7. (Post continues after video.)

Video by Channel 7 News

Finally speaking of life as an adult and leaving school, Sobotker finishes, "I want to know that this school has raised a society of people who treat each other with equality and with respect no matter how they dress, no matter how they have their hair, no matter how they wear their makeup. That's what I want."

Kambrya College also came under fire from at least one parent of a schoolgirl, who wrote about her daughter's experience at the impromptu assembly on her Facebook page.

The school is yet to respond publicly.

Featured image: iStock